There was one thing I knew I wanted to do at the end of 2020 and that was to enter 2021 with a renewed sense of hope. 2020 took a lot from us, and the loss was (once again) disproportionately shouldered by those in our community who were already existing at the margins. In retrospect, 2020 also brought us many good gifts camouflaged by the waves of crisis, gifts that we will still be unwrapping well into our future. Mountain T.O.P. spent 2020 reflecting on the seasons of life - spiritually, physically, socially, and emotionally - in one of the most different seasons any of us could have anticipated. In the midst of all of the challenges, we celebrate the good things that happened at Mountain T.O.P. last year.
Here are a few examples:
Out of the modified way of carrying out our mission in the summer of 2020, we uncovered ways we were not offering our programs equitably; and we are shifting our delivery methods to address this inequity as well as doing the internal work to uncover other injustices we must correct so that more flourishing happens.
In the slower seasons, we took a hard look at our organizational behaviors that were misaligned with our mission, vision, and values; and we are making strategic decisions to address those misalignments.
2020 caused us to embrace agility so that we could quickly adjust to changes, and we are committed to scaling up in a right-sized method as God works to renew us.
When we found ourselves in the wilderness, discernment and crucial conversations were essential to moving forward; and we are making these disciplines normative in the process of building up our community.
I have come to appreciate the multi-directional nature of hope. Hope looks forward from the present season and keeps us tethered to God’s future kingdom. Hope also works from the future back to the present; and my new desire is to let the abundant life in Christ in its future fullness illuminate places in the present where healing and wholeness might be lacking so that we might respond with justice and grace
Julie Keel | Interim Executive Director